ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the three case studies of recent conflicts to apply the jus ad bellum rules to contemporary warfare. The Second Gulf War started as an interstate war between the United States and Iraq, evolved into a civil war involving sectarian strife between Shiite and Sunni Muslims and Kurds, and became further complicated by the participation of transnational terrorist networks. The goal was to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein. The Afghanistan War that began three weeks after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 is the longest war in American history; most combat troops were scheduled to be withdrawn by late 2014, with the war ended by late 2016. The Kosovo War was a civil war pitting Kosovo Albanian rebels, based in a province within Serbia, against the government of Serbia and Montenegro. The conflict became internationalized when North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces intervened to stop Serb ethnic cleansing of Kosovars, mounting an aerial bombardment campaign.
